Handshouse IN THE NEWS
June 2025
Executive Director, Marie Brown answers questions about the Notre-Dame Project full-scale replica of Choir Truss #6 and the 1:10 scale model of the choir section of La Forêt that we just reassembled and installed with a team of talented carpenters at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY.
January 2026
Florida State University Department of Art students recently took their classroom experience to Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens to deliver interactive toys designed for animals as part of the Interspecies Sculpture Studio course in the College of Fine Arts, a collaboration launched by FSU Associate Professor and MFA Program Director and Handshouse Studio Board Member, Rob Duarte, as part of the Handshouse Studio: Toys for Animals project.
January 2025
Reporting from Handshouse Studio in Norwell, Plymouth Artisan, Michael Burrey, and Handshouse Studio, Executive Director, Marie Brown share how he was able to participate in the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
April 2025
After restoring several Nantucket buildings, preservation carpenter Michael Burrey takes his talents to Paris. Learn more about Michael and his many collaborations with Handshouse Studio and his tenure of preservation carpenter in the region and abroad, .
May 2025
Plymouth Center for the Arts (PCA) hosted Burrey and Marie Brown, of Handshouse Studio, to talk about “The Restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris,” on Sunday, May 4, from 2 to 4 p.m., where they shared how their work led to the development of the Notre-Dame Project and Burrey reconstructing Notre-Dame de Paris’s 315-foot wooden spire.
June 2024
Ruth is a thinker; Emily snores. Meet the longt ime elephant ‘roommates’ at NewBedford zoo.
“As I See It,” a weekly photo column by Pulitzer Prize winner Stan Grossfeld, brings the stories of New England to Globe readers. This one takes a glimpes into the Handshouse Toys for Elephants project.
December 2024
Plymouth resident, preservation carpenter Michael Burrey is invited to help reconstruct Notre Dame in Paris. Learn more about Michael and his many collaborations with Handshouse Studio and his tenure of preservation carpenter in the region and abroad,
December 2024
Meet the American Artisans, Handshouse: Notre-Dame Project participants, Jackson DuBois, Michael Burrey, and Hank Silver who helped resurrect Notre Dame cathedral.
December 2024
Agnès Poirier travels to the Loire to follow American carpenters, Jackson DuBois & Michael Burrey, who are helping to rebuild the spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
December 2024
Jackson DuBois speaks with Ann Cabrera bout his experience in France, the specifics of his work recreating the spire while living and working in France.
December 2024
Michael Burrey, a restoration carpentry teacher at the North Bennet Street School, brought his woodworking expertise to the Paris landmark after its disastrous fire.
December 2024
BBC News World Service: Weekend covers Jackson DuBois’ experience in France in a brief interview in their weekly podcast, titled “South Korean President faces vote of confidence.”
December 2024
WKTV channel 2 news covers Jackson DuBois’ journey from his small town of 800 people to working to restore a monument visited by 12 million people per year.
November 2024
In a live interview with Eleni Giokos, Michael Burrey discusses his work on the Notre-Dame Cathedral spire, using traditional building techniques, his personal connection to the cathedral, both in his work with teaching preservation carpentry and his family history.
November 2024
In a live interview with Richard Quest, Jackson DuBois reflects on his time spent rebuilding the quatrefoils and spire of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, discussing the precision required, the interdisciplinary team, and the newfound desire for young people to learn traditional craft skills.
November 2024
Jackson DuBois speaks about his experience in France, the specifics of his work, the significance of his name, and his excitement and nerves regarding recreating gothic features.
July 2024
Agnès Poirer interviews Jackson DuBois and Michael Burrey on-site in France during their time assisting in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris.
April 2022
Marie Brown, executive director of Handshouse Studio, explains the different trusses in “La Forêt,” the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris that burned in the 2019 fire.
May 2022
Members of Congress visited the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland, viewing our Gwoździec Synagogue reconstruction!
June 2022
Journal of the Timber Framers Guild; Includes articles by Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project participants and an image of the truss on exhibtion at the National Building Museum.
April 2022
Rick and Laura Brown during the Handshouse Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project build at Catholic University campus in Washington, DC August 2021.
April 2022
Handshouse Studio re/creates lost history through the Notre-Dame Project, a hands-on experience that allows students to learn history in a unique format.
Feb 2022
The Handshouse Studio team raising our Notre-Dame de Paris truss reconstruction on the National Mall August 5th, 2021, as an exhibition for one of Handshouse’s innovative projects.
March 2022
The Handshouse Notre-Dame Truss Project is on exhibition at the Millennium Gate Museum in Atlanta, GA until April 25th. Come see the full-scale truss!
March 2022
Timber Framing: Journal of the Timber Framers Guild, March, 2022. Includes Articles by Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project participants and Handshouse executive director Marie Brown.
September 2021
Timber Framing: Journal of the Timber Framers Guild, September, 2021. Includes articles by Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project participants about their experience creating the truss replica.
September 2021
A full-scale replica of one of the oldest timber trusses destroyed during the ruinous April 2019 fire at Notre Dame de Paris cathedral recently concluded a several-week showing at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.
August 23, 2021
On a Thursday afternoon in August, architecture student Juan Soto was part of a team of more than 50 architects, carpenters, and students pulling ropes to raise a hand-built, full-scale truss on the campus of The Catholic University of America.
August 16, 2021
In the final pages of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Quasimodo scrambles through the rafters of his lair, Victor Hugo wrote in 1831 of the “prodigious timber-work so dense it was called ‘the forest.’”
August 3, 2021
Cardinal Wilton Gregory and the team of students, carpenters, architects and crafts people gently pull a truss into its vertical position on the lawn of the mall at The Catholic University of America.
August 6, 2021
Marie Brown was among those who watched the fire in 2019, stunned. Before the flames were even extinguished, she was on the phone, strategizing about how to help rebuild it with others connected to Handshouse Studio, which she leads as executive director.
August 6, 2021
After months of preparation, the campus played host for two weeks to a 75-person crew that took logs transported from the mountains of Virginia, cut them into timbers and assembled the truss using tools and techniques employed nearly a millennium ago.
August 10, 2021
A faithfully reconstructed, full-scale replica of one of the oldest timber trusses destroyed during the April 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral is now on view at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., as part of the museum’s scaled-back 2021 Summer Block Party.
August 3, 2021
Catholic University (CUA) students and Handshouse Studio host a ceremony to hand raise a full-scale truss of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC., on Tuesday, August 3, 2021.
August 2, 2021
Catholic University to recreate Notre Dame de Paris truss with medieval methods…
The 10-day project will produce a full-sized replica of Truss #6, which will then tour Washington D.C. on exhibition.
July 30, 2021
Visitors to Catholic University’s campus this week saw an unusual site on the University Lawn: a team of 40 carpenters and framers using axes to construct a large triangular shape out of 30 white oak logs.
July 21, 2021
Craftsmen in US use medieval techniques to reconstruct Notre Dame roof support
A full-scale truss fit for the Paris cathedral will be built in Washington, DC this summer as part of a teaching project by Handshouse Studio
July 26. 2021
It worked 800 years ago: CUA students building replica of Notre Dame roof truss using medieval techniques
Aug. 12, 2019 The local news in Philadelphia featured a segment on the Gourd Banjo Project exhibition at the Museum of the American Revolution
Sept. 1, 2019 One Impulse from a Vernal Wood Around the bend, two storm-downed trees have been milled and reconstituted with mortise-and-tenon joinery in a zig-zag pattern, using the stumps as anchor points.
July 12, 2019 A 'surprise' in the woods…
Couple energize Chesterwood with forest-based contemporary sculpture exhibit
May 13, 2019 MassArt students create toys for elephants at New Bedford zoo
April 18, 2017 Trojan Horse replica takes shape at Norwell’s Handshouse Studio